Chemical treatments are widely utilized by farmers, property owners, industry and the like as fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides. For many of these types of applications, it is desirable for the treating agents to be released slowly into the surrounding environment, over a period of days, weeks, months and/or years. The time release of treating agent into the surrounding environment is generally designed to allow the treatment protocol to occur, and remain effective, over a long time period to reduce the costs associated with the application of the treatment.
Heretofore known methods and apparatus for the time release of treating agents into a surrounding environment typically allow for treatment protocols of up to one year, i.e. allow for the release of treating agent for up to one year after initial application. For many applications, it would be desirable to have a system which provides for the time release delivery of chemical compositions into a surrounding environment for over a year, preferably for many years, to minimize the costs associated with retreatment, and to provide an effective treatment protocol for a longer period of time than typically provided by conventional methods and apparatus.
In addition, it would be desirable to find a new use for biodegradable plastics and other biodegradable materials which degrade at slow rate, i.e. have an environmental half life of 0.5 years to 20 years or longer. As set forth in the following sections, the present invention provides an advantageous new use for biodegradable materials which degrade at a slow rate.